• Ukraine and Russia blame each other for shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed a demilitarize zone near the facility.
• The United States has called for IAEA to visit the site in southeastern Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy, Russia has reached a new low and is attempting to “threaten the whole world” by shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.

As UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed a demilitarised zone at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the city of Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of shelling the facility.

Mr. Guterres also urged both sides to cease military action near the facility in order to prevent “catastrophic consequences.”

The United States supported the United Nations’ call for a demilitarised zone and urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the proposed location.

Energoatom, the Ukrainian government’s nuclear power agency, reported that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complex was struck five times on Thursday, including in the vicinity where radioactive materials are stored.

According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Moscow-appointed officials said Ukraine shelled the plant twice, disrupting a shift changeover.

Reports from both sides regarding the conditions at the plant have not been independently confirmed.
Early in March, Vladimir Putin’s troops seized the city of Enerhodar, and while the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is under Russian control, its Ukrainian staff continues to run nuclear operations.

In his Thursday evening address, Mr. Zelenksyy demanded that Russia return the plant to Ukrainian control and said the “world should react immediately to expel the occupiers.”

He said: “Russia once again broke the bottom in the world history of terrorism.

“No one else used the nuclear power plant, so obviously to threaten the whole world and to put forward some conditions and absolutely everyone in the world should react immediately to expel the occupiers from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.”

“This is a global interest, not just a Ukrainian need.”

Mr. Grossi made the remarks during Thursday’s meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation.

The Russian ambassador to the UN Security Council, Vasily Nebenzia, stated that allegations that Moscow is shelling the plant are “cynical and absurd.”

The world, he continued, was being pushed “to the brink of nuclear catastrophe, comparable in scale with Chernobyl”.

However, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, pleaded with the Russians to abandon the plant.

“None of us can stop the wind if it carries radiation. But together, we are capable of stopping a terrorist state,” he said.

Separately, satellite images released on Thursday revealed destruction at an airbase in the Russian-annexed portion of Crimea.

According to Western military experts, the images suggest Ukraine may have a new long-range strike capability with the potential to alter the war’s course.

Independent satellite company Planet Labs captured images of three nearly identical craters where buildings at the Saki airbase in Russia had been struck with apparent precision.

The base on the Crimean peninsula’s southwestern coast sustained extensive fire damage, with at least eight visible warplanes destroyed.

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